She was called in at short notice to deputise for Health Minister Jonathan Coleman at the launch of Invercargill's Healthy Families anti-obesity initiative after Mr Coleman's flight was diverted to Dunedin because of snowy weather.
After reading the speech Mr Coleman had prepared, Ms Dowie told the crowd of about 40 gathered at ILT Stadium Southland she ''would be out there shovelling snow off the runway herself'' later in the day if her holiday flight could not leave the city.
Invercargill is one of 10 centres in the country with higher-than-average obesity levels selected to offer the new Healthy Family initiative - a four-year, community-led programme aimed at encouraging people to make good food choices, exercise, sustain a healthy weight, be smokefree and drink alcohol only in moderation.
Sport Southland is Invercargill's lead agency and has a $1.9 million Ministry of Health contract.
Mr Coleman said the initiative would help drive long-term change and he was ''really excited'' about the potential it had to make a real difference to the health of those communities.
''Tackling the rising rates of obesity and chronic disease is a key priority and I am focused on this.
''The causes are complex and there is no single solution,'' he said.
''My officials are looking at what else can be done in this area, particularly with childhood obesity.''
He said Healthy Families, with its emphasis on a community-led approach, was a ''bold new way'' of thinking. Healthy Families allowed communities to think differently rather than do things as they had been done in the past, and allowed them to try small-scale, short-term projects which could be extended if they proved effective.
The first job for the staff was to carry out a baseline evaluation of what activities and programmes with an anti-obesity focus were already taking place in the city, and once that was completed work would begin on planning projects.
